Product Reviews » Marketing

400 Online Marketing, SEO, and Social Media Must Read Lists

Blake Waddill — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 02:30:27 +0000

Lists have always been one of the best ways to communicate information. They are also awesome retweet, link, and bookmark bait!

For about 6 weeks I was putting together a list of lists. I still have a bunch of lists that I never added because I just ran out of time to get this put together. Since this post has been in my draft bin for over a year now, I’ve decided to publish it as is. Enjoy!

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8 Ways Blogging is Like Playing World of Warcraft

Blake Waddill — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 02:45:52 +0000

Anyone who has played World Of Warcraft before knows about the stigmas: No social life, no social skills, Living in a fantasy world, 100% pure addiction. If you haven’t played, you may have even thought those things about WOW players. While I don’t play anymore, I can verify that not all those are true (usually).

Shockingly, there are actually a lot of similarities between blogging/social media/make money online and World of Warcraft.

1. People you’ve never met in person are some of your best friends

WOW players of often teased for calling someone they regularly play with and talk to their friend. How you really be friends with someone you’ve never met face to face?

Similarly, most bloggers will never meet most of the people they interact with on a daily basis in person. As bloggers, over time we share much of our personal experiences and personality with our readers. We regularly have discussions via comments, Twitter, Facebook, or other messaging services.

This sharing causes us to bond with our reader or the authors of the blogs we read. Darren Rowse was once jumped on by a woman who had never left a comment on his blog, but had been reading for years. (It’s really not a creepy as it sounds)

2. Learning About It Is Addictive

When players first start into WOW, it is uncharted territory. Each quest, location, and skill is excited. The more you play, the more your eyes open up to the possibilities and the more you want to learn and get better. Once a player gets past the initial learning curve, they can get totally caught up in reading about the game and even forget to play at time.

Learning about blogging is highly addictive too. At first it is a little scary setting up hosting, picking a theme, finding plugins, and starting to write content. Once you’ve settled into your first blog and start writing content, you really start to see how huge the possibilities are. It’s easy to start reading tips from all the experts on how to get better and forget to spend time writing for yourself.

3. Stats are addictive, but useless without purpose

World of Warcraft players are notorious for obsessing over stats and achievements. Who has the most Attack Power or Spell Damage or who can do the most Damage Per Second? When it comes down to it, unless you can utilize those powers for a single purpose (often with other teammates), they don’t do you any good.

What blogger hasn’t checked her stats 5 times in an hour or checked his Twitter to see how many new retweets he has received? It’s great to see big traffic numbers, but without a game plan on how to monetize them, they don’t help you reach your end goal.

4. You can spend countless hours tweeking your plugins and addons

One of the best features Blizzard included in World of Warcraft is the ability to greatly customize your HUD (your viewable screen). Programmers have come up with hundreds of thousands of addons and plugins to change the appearance for both functional and cosmetic reasons. Many players will spend dozens of hours optimizing their display to fit their desires.

The same is also true of blogs. As bloggers, we have thousands of both free and premium themes to choose from, each with an endless supply of new plugins. Some plugins are for cosmetics, others functional, but all personal preference. It is easy to spend hundreds of hours customizing and optimizing your blog appearance for bests results. It’s also easy to accidentally put too much on the screen at once. Information overload INC!

5. It doesn’t make sense to people who are not involved

There is almost always something to be done playing WOW whether it is raiding dungeons with 25 other players or fighting in the arena against other players around the world. It’s almost impossible for someone who doesn’t play WOW to understand the draw to play all the time.

With reading other blogs, commenting, sharing on social media, building a following, and tweeting to your heart’s content all “needing” to be done, loved ones will also question why and how bloggers spend so much time working on their blog (especially if you aren’t making any money doing it yet).

6. There is money to be made, but only for the top fraction of a percent

Most people don’t realize there are sponsored tournaments for World of Warcraft where the winners split as much as $75,000 for first place. While it might not be a legitimate living in the Americas and Europe, Korea has several sponsored teams that are paid a salary to play.

Unless you are active in the Make Money Online community or you’ve seen a special on 60 Minutes, it is very possible that you didn’t even know you could make money blogging. Many people who hear about it try to make money blogging, but most people never make a penny, few people break even, and only the smallest percent can make a living online.

7. It is fun being good and famous

Something weird happens when you start doing well in WOW. Everyone wants to be your friend, help you out, ask for help, or really just talk to you for a nanosecond. On your server you can become efamous as the player with the best gear, best ratings, or being in the best guild. It’s amazingly fun and satisfying knowing that almost everyone wishes they were you (in game at least).

I can’t think of many things more fun than making money blogging/marking online. Professional sports is probably the only line of work that could rival the fun potential (although sales and bartending each have their own aspects). Like when a player first gets that amazing piece of gear, a blogger is in ecstasy the first time his or her post goes viral or getting that first affiliate check.

8. Despite the enormous size of the community, everyone at the top knows each other

In World of Warcraft, it is almost impossible to be at the top before people start noticing you. Other players might check out your gear or spec to try to figure out how you are successful and mimic it. Other top players will start introducing themselves to you and either talk (usually) friendly trash or offer to team up with you. In WOW if you make the SK-100, the listing of the top 100 rated arena (pvp) players in the world, you’re practically stalked by other players.

Bloggers also ban together. Chris Brogan, Copyblogger, and Problogger can often be found collaborating at conferences (hanging out in their underwear), guest posting, cross referencing each other, and sharing data. Guys like Shoemoney and John Chow also regularly chat and share tips and trick they’ve picked up along the way. Even in niches that aren’t as big as MMO, the top bloggers on the scene are known by more than just their followers.

At the end of the day, both can be a giant waste of time, but if they offer entertainment and happiness, that’s really what matters. While more socially acceptable, blogging is more like World of Warcarft than you might think. Honestly, I started writing this article back in March as a guest post for Daily Blog Tips, and ended up getting sidetrack. I’ve finally realized that I probably won’t ever finish it for DBT, so here it is, unedited and in all it’s ugly glory! Please share! <3

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Why John Chow Will Always Win Referral Contests

Blake Waddill — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:44:56 +0000

Without a doubt, one of the best ways to launch a product (free or paid) is to offer a referral contest. Recently, Jonathan Volk ran a month long contest for 3 iPads; the top two refers and one person at random would get iPads.

After a couple of weeks, John Chow was so far ahead of everyone else that Jony issued a specific contest to see if anyone could challenge John Chow for the most referrals. John Chow proceeded to beat himself with no one else even close. The second place guy was Shoemoney just for the record.

There are a couple of very specific reasons John Chow will always win referral contests. In no particular order:

1. John Chow has followers that convert and take actions

Many people have tons of followers. Some have e-mail lists several times larger than John, but John’s readers convert. In order to win these contests, you need a following that listens to you and trusts you. About half a year back, John unfollowed everyone on his twitter account (nearly 60,000 people). In the process he lost about 10,000 followers, but now the people who are following him are legit followers who click and convert.

2. John Chow bribes his readers (and his bribes are usually pretty sick)

John can go buy an iPad with what he makes in an hour; it isn’t about the prize, it’s about the pride of winning. Instead of keeping the prizes for himself he offers to give the prize to one of his readers if he wins.

Even when there isn’t a contest, John offers another ridiculously huge perk to buying from him: free review/ad space. On more than one occasion, as an incentive for buying from him, John will give the buyer a free review or ad space on his site. From a CPC standpoint, many of the products are worth buying just for the “free” review. Furthermore, John’s traffic converts, so it’s better than random AdSense traffic even if the CPC is the same.

3. John is blunt about his motives and disclosure

The top to referrers in Jony Volk’s contest had one very similar trait: they don’t pull punches, and they tell you what they are doing. They don’t care if they offend you or make you mad (that weeds out the bad leads and freeloaders). Both John Chow and Shoemoney tell you to leave if you’re offended being asked to things for them. Just another reason John Chow’s traffic converts.

4. The sites with a big enough reader base don’t participate

In order to beat John Chow, you would need a massive traffic advantage over him. Blogs like Problogger (which still might not have enough traffic), Mashable, Lifehacker, Tech Crunch, MakeUseOf, Smashing, etc.. don’t tend to make their money from affiliate referral programs like John Chow. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they don’t sell things or make money from affiliate deals, but I couldn’t imagine seeing any of those sites participating in a referral contests.

Also, most of those sites have multiple contributors. I don’t think splitting an iPad six ways would work very well. Maybe each author could use it every 6th week?

John Chow Owns Referral Period

When it comes down to it, John Chow has readers that convert and more to bribe readers with. If I can get a $500+ value (a review on JC’s webpage plus a JC tweet promoting the article) for buying a $500 product that kicks ass anyway, guess whose referral link I’m clicking?

The biggest downside for the contest host to this is many people may be discouraged by John’s tight grip on the referral competition. One way to make it more fair is to offer multiple winners and/or random winners. Another good option is to give John Chow a handicap. Maybe if John had to send over 4 times as many referrals, others might have a chance at winning.

Is anyone up to the challenge to beating John Chow?

Image Credit: Image was taken from JC’s About page.

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Invade Blog Archives To Build Your Knowledge In A Flash

Blake Waddill — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:01:55 +0000

The anticipation of a new post everyday can be intoxicating. Many times the anticipation is better than the article itself because it is something new to teach and amuse us. But that doesn’t mean it will help you become a better blogger right now.

It turns out there is actually a better way to learn about blogging than hanging on the edge waiting for the article addressing the topic you are struggling with. It is the miracle called archives. I know the word brings to mind the Hollywood image of an office building basement where old useless files are stored; they only seem to come in handy when trying to solve some strange mystery whose roots came from years before.

In reality, archives are your best friend if you’re a blogger. While the world of blogging and making money online is constantly changing, the same principles from before still apply now. You might not be able to slap up 3 AdSense blocks and make a living like in the past; however, picking niches, writing solid content, networking, or any other topic you might need advice on are still the same.

In addition to finding what you’re looking for, you’ll likely come across countless other articles that will shed light on aspects of your blog you never considered.

Archives are an invaluable resource in other niches besides just blogging too. If you pick through the archives of blogs like Copyblogger or Chris Brogan, you’ll be able to find copywriting and social media advice that consultants would charge you a thousand dollars an hour for at a bargain price: Free! Even weight loss, cooking, or education blogs will have countless amazing ideas that you can find quickly reading the archives instead of waiting for the next post.

Proactively hunting for inspiration or tips rather than waiting for them to find you will accelerate your ascent to the top. Next time you’re waiting for that perfect post that addresses what you’re struggling with, skip the wait and search the archives of your favorite blogs. There is a good chance what you are looking for is already there.

Photo Credit: Reinante El Pintor de Fuego

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How To Get The Most Traffic From Every Article You Write

Blake Waddill — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:01:13 +0000

After reading of the comments from my most recent post about a blogging schedule and Leo Babauta’s article about How to Deliver the Highest Impact with Each Post, I really started thinking about ways to really capture both of these ideas together.

If you’re posting killer articles day after day, but not seeing significant growth the problem might not be your content. Your problem might be where you are publishing your article.

Guest posts are one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic to any blog. Even the “A-list” bloggers like Daniel Scocco use the power of guest posts to drastically increase the traffic to their blogs.

Instead of posting amazing content 5 days a week on a blog that isn’t getting any traffic, try submitting your best one or two articles to other blogs in your niche. Obviously, a high traffic and well respected blog is the bests place to share, but even smaller blogs in your niche can send you new readers.

One of the best ways to pick which blogs to submit your articles to is to browse through each blog’s archives. Notice not just the subjects of posts, but also specifically find other guests posts. Use these posts as a measuring stick for both the quality and style of your content.

On Daily Blog Tips, for example, a huge number of the guest posts are lists of some sort. In fact, more than half the lists on DBT are written by guest authors. If you have a killer list article that you just finished up or have in queue to post next week, consider submitting it instead.

While it is true that daily posting will bring readers back more frequently than posting once or twice a week, but people have to come to your site before they can become regulars in the first place. Don’t look at it as a loss of content on your site, but a gain of credibility and potential followers from another. After you see the results, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner.

Photo Credit: WebSuccessDiva

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Two Bad Excuses Bloggers Use For Not Linking Out

Blake Waddill — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:27:29 +0000

Hyperlinks are they foundation that the internet was built upon. Links are the juice that blogs live on as well. Inbound links are the highest sign of respect another blogger can send you because they truly believe your content is worth reading.

Linking to someone requires trust. If you’re sending your readers to another person’s site, your credibility as a source of valuable information is on the line. Maybe that is why it is so rare that bloggers link out unsolicited.

The more blogs I read, big and small, I’ve noticed that very few blogs regularly use outbound links, and I’m not sure why. There are 2 main reasons I can think of, but both neither make sense when you really consider it.

The First Reason Bloggers Don’t Link Out Is They Don’t Want People To Leave Their Site

This seems like a logical reason not to link out. If someone clicks on your link they have to leave your site to go to another site. Why on earth would you sending someone to another blog help you?

The facts are, if someone is reading your article long enough find the links and follow them, they are going to be interested enough to stay on your site and finish your article. As a blogger, sharing quality content is what makes you valuable, so if you share valuable content at another blogger’s site, you’re providing quality.

The Second Reason Bloggers Don’t Link Out Is SEO and Page Rank Sculpting

Whether we like it or not, the majority of SEO comes from inbound links. That means linking to other pages within your site can help your SERP and Page Rank. Some people call it page rank sculpting (Daniel Scocco calls it making your own PR).

When talking about “PR Sculpting” each link is considered “link juice.” The more outbound links you have, the less juice each one is worth. This means many bloggers try to use minimal outbound links to increase their internal link juice.

Using the “nofollow” tag prevents link juice from being passed to the link target and was once used for additional sculpting. Last summer, Google announced the nofollow tag still split the link juice, but didn’t pass it. This is effectively throwing away the SEO/PR value of nofollow links.

This matters because all the comments that get left on your site are outbound links and consume juice even if they are nofollow. If you have a highly interactive audience, you’re going to have more outbound links from comments that you could ever stuff into your articles.

When it’s all said and done, if people are enjoying your blog, linking out isn’t going to hurt your following and will make you look like a great source for information. Adding a couple of outbound links isn’t going to hurt your SEO or PR and will get you a couple of trackback links in return.

[polldaddy poll=2721519]

Image Credit: Skittzitilby

Is Your Posting Frequency Working For You Or Are You Working For It?

Blake Waddill — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:01:51 +0000

Posting schedule is a topic that is often debated among bloggers. It’s not always easy to post on a schedule, especially when family and offline work calls, so lets talk about why you should consider posting schedule and what frequency you should post.

Before we get too far, we should also remember that a posting schedule does not mean you have to post 5 times a week. Posting one time per week on the same day is still a schedule.

Should You Have A Posting Schedule?

One of the main arguments for not having a posting schedule is genuinely inspired posts. Being on a strict schedule can force you to publish posts that aren’t completely polished; by only posting when you feel like posting, you ensure that your content is always inspired.

The downfall of not having a schedule is you can easily never make time to post, and your blog and readership will die. Some also argue that unpredictable posting can hurt your following. To counter that just encourage readers to subscribe to your RSS, then they’ll know when to check your site.

Posting on a schedule is great for building a reputation for being reliable and consistent. Your readers will know when to check your site, and people who stumble upon your site will know when to expect new work.

When you start running short on ideas, inspiration, or time, the deadline of a schedule can make your post articles that aren’t your best. One way Daniel Scocco mentions in his free ebook on how to combat this is filler posts. Instead of going for the fences with every article, try writing several good posts building up to one killer post.

Extra tip: Thrus/Friday after 3 pm have the highest CTR and number of retweets.

What is the Best Posting Frequency?

Posting frequency also plays a huge role in how fast your blog will grow. I’ve noticed on Props Blog that posting 4 or more times per week causing my traffic to increase faster than only posting 2 or 3 times. Posting less than once every 10 days will stunt your growth.

One of the main advantages to posting 4 or more times per week is the content is almost always fresh for new readers. Most people aren’t interested in reading an old dead blog, so several week gaps between posts can kill your readership unless your already established.

The major disadvantage to a high post frequency is similar to a posting schedule; it’s easy to run out of ideas, run out of time, or get burned out. It is also frustrating having a bunch of posts that don’t get very many views because of a high post frequency. If that’s being a problem, consider submitting some of your articles for guest posts on a larger blog (just be sure not to publish on both blogs).

It all comes down to the goals and purpose of your blog. For building a passive following infrequent/unscheduled posts are probably fine. If you’re trying to grow fast, frequent posts are a must and a schedule is probably a good idea.

Do you have a post schedule? Have you noticed post frequency has helped or hurt you?

Photo Credit: Andreanna Moya Photography and Joe Lanman.

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Sampling Mojitos Can Teach You About Marketing Online

Blake Waddill — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:59:49 +0000

Mojito Recipe

EDIT: I have been getting a ton visitors looking for a great Mojito recipe. I always measure my Mojitos in “parts” since I’m frequently making them for 5+ people at once.

What you need:
Mint, Bacardi Rum, Soda Water, Lime, Simple Syrup
Simple Syrup Recipe – Boil 1 cup of water and stir in 1 cup of sugar. You can also use other sweeteners like splenda.

Start with mint leaves (roughly one leaf per 3 oz, use more if you love mint).
Add a splash of simple syrup and muddle mint leaves (if you have a pack of sugar, add this too. It will help get the flavor out of the mint and into the simple syrup).
Add 1 part Bacardi Rum, 0.5 part simple Syrup, 2 parts soda, a squeeze of lime, and fill with ice.
Stir, don’t shake (you don’t want to get the muddled mint all mixed up in your drink, the splash of simple syrup will have all the mint flavor).

Mojitos are amazing because they are so flexible. You can always add more/less mint, rum, simple syrup, and soda to fit your flavor preference. The key to a truly amazing mojito is using the simple syrup to muddle the mint and extract the flavor before mixing the drink. Enjoy!

What Mojito Sampling Taught Me About Online Marketing

For the last couple of months I have been doing liquor tastings and demos at stores all over the DFW metroplex. I’ve also done promotions for some other companies like I.O. Metro handing out flyers and waving people in and even for Frito Lays handing out Sunchips. (yummy!)

This got me thinking about what really works for marketing both online and offline.

From what I have seen, interaction has a much greater impact on people than putting a sign in front of someone. Much like those 125×125 ads most of us have on our blogs, the majority of people never even notice a sign for flyer (or notice it, but don’t respond).

Teaching someone to make a drink while they are shopping for liquor is powerful. The conversion rate for people who take the time to let me teach them to make a Cubra Libre or a Mojito is amazingly high because the people sampling and learning have a time investment, and I have built personal trust for the brand.

You’ve probably been at a bar or club where shot girls were handing out samples, but how often do you buy more? The demos we run have a 30-50% conversion rate (some higher). That’s better spent money in my book.

The liquor store demos target the consumer in a place where they can take action right away, and they are in an environment where they are likely to remember rather than being drunk.

We as bloggers can learn from this. People “driving by” and people not look buy aren’t likely to convert. People who have already taken action (signing up for a newsletter) or someone coming to a page for information about a product are ready to buy at some level.

The biggest mistake I’ve made for making money blogging is hoping ads will convert. For huge sites they might some, but reviews and recommendations work infinitely better.

John Chow makes $40,000+/month basically reviewing products and building hype via newsletter. He doesn’t even try to hide that’s what he does. There is balance though. Not every post is a call to action. Many are tips or industry news, and that’s what builds the following of people who trust him and are ready to take action.

If you get nothing else from this, take this: build trust via interaction and free assistance then make a clear call to action when your audience can act.

Image Credit: Image taken from Tinypic Free Image Hosting

Sometimes Not Enough Is Still Too Much

Blake Waddill — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:13:54 +0000

Many of us have an academic background where you can never write too much. If it’s not 5 paragraphs with an intro, three supporting argument paragraphs, and a conclusion, then it’s formatted wrong (this of course is the minimum. More fluff/garage is required the higher the class).

Blogging is different. Most of us don’t have time to read 3-5 pages of essay when there are 25 other blogs begging to be read, so why do we bother writing that much? At first, a post might not seem like enough, but trust me, it is.

Brevity is what Chris Brogan preaches with conviction. Seth Godin is the king of holy cow omg wow short posts. Even Daily Blog Tips keeps the posts short and sweet.

Especially with blogging, it is critical to get to the point quickly. Make it easy to scan to find the major points by using short paragraphs (and headers). Instead of trying to get every thought and tangent into a single post, spread them out.

I’m guilty of writing too much in every post, and even now I want to write more about how sometimes not enough is still too much…

That’s it, I’m done!

(Under 200 words! Booyah!)

Photo Credit: Image by Alexandre Duret-Lutz. Licensed via Creative Commons.

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Everything You Thought You Knew About SEO Is Wrong

Blake Waddill — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:27:02 +0000

The two biggest ways to get new traffic to your site are SEO and word of mouth (social media). Which traffic is better is debatable. I’ve read many sources that say search engine traffic converts better because the visitor was already searching for something specific whereas social media is usually not as targeted.

Regardless, search engines will likely send you the most long term traffic and definitely the most passive traffic of any source. I had to take a 6 week break from blogging, but I still continued to receive search engine traffic.

We’ve all read the standard SEO tips before. Get backlinks, using h(x) tags, keyword density without overstuffing, etc… The fact of the matter is, none of use statistical evidence to cite our beliefs.

SEOmoz, self proclaimed “Best SEO Resource,” published some statistic recording the correlation between the ever popular inbound links, h(x) tags, URL keyword stuffing, etc… This article has made me question what I’ve read about SEO.

According to SEOmoz statistics, total number of inbound links does not necessarily lead a better SERP. Nor does keywords in titles. Nor does the use of h(x) tags. All things that are regularly preached by the majority of bloggers including yours truly.

What SEOmoz does claim works is tagging your images. I can verify this based on my 6 week absence. WP Stats records the search term people use to find your page even if it is an image. Google Analytics does not include stats on image searches (as far as I can tell). Based on these numbers, around half my search engine traffic comes from tagged images.

So does this mean the practices we’ve been told to use are all lies? Nope.

While their charts seem impressive, we already know that no single method alone can be used to improve our SERP. A recent article from SEO Book does a great job of pointing out that SEO is as much art as science.

The take away message from all this to me is simple. While all those great tips like building links and writing keyword relevant titles might not get you the top rank alone, but even if they don’t have a perfect relation, they probably do help. Sooner or later you’ll get there. And oh yeah, don’t forget to label your images!

Product Reviews » Marketing

400 Online Marketing, SEO, and Social Media Must Read Lists

Affiliate Marketing

Business

Comments

Content

Design/Development

How To Blog

Influence

Link Building

Make Money Blogging/online

Marketing

Misc

Plugins/Wordpress

Sales/Copywriting

SEO

SEM

Social Media

Themes

Traffic

Trust/Credibility

Twitter

Best Of

8 Ways Blogging is Like Playing World of Warcraft

1. People you’ve never met in person are some of your best friends

2. Learning About It Is Addictive

3. Stats are addictive, but useless without purpose

4. You can spend countless hours tweeking your plugins and addons

5. It doesn’t make sense to people who are not involved

6. There is money to be made, but only for the top fraction of a percent

7. It is fun being good and famous

8. Despite the enormous size of the community, everyone at the top knows each other

Why John Chow Will Always Win Referral Contests

1. John Chow has followers that convert and take actions

2. John Chow bribes his readers (and his bribes are usually pretty sick)

3. John is blunt about his motives and disclosure

4. The sites with a big enough reader base don’t participate

John Chow Owns Referral Period

Invade Blog Archives To Build Your Knowledge In A Flash

How To Get The Most Traffic From Every Article You Write

Two Bad Excuses Bloggers Use For Not Linking Out

The First Reason Bloggers Don’t Link Out Is They Don’t Want People To Leave Their Site

The Second Reason Bloggers Don’t Link Out Is SEO and Page Rank Sculpting

Is Your Posting Frequency Working For You Or Are You Working For It?

Should You Have A Posting Schedule?

What is the Best Posting Frequency?

Sampling Mojitos Can Teach You About Marketing Online

Mojito Recipe

What Mojito Sampling Taught Me About Online Marketing

Sometimes Not Enough Is Still Too Much

Everything You Thought You Knew About SEO Is Wrong